an old writer and his words

  • ACROSS AN ABYSS

    A Palestinian woman tells her son she loves him as he leaves their home in much the same words as does the Israeli woman to her son. The Palestinian woman would never consider these words as having anything to do with a young Israeli. The Israeli mother would be horrified to think of speaking the…

    Lou Faber

  • HANGING

    She says she feels like she is getting to the end of her rope. He tells her to hold on more tightly, that he will search for additional rope and when he finds it, tie the new rope to the old. She says he could just go out and buy a new rope, much longer…

    Lou Faber

  • GRANDSON

    This Sunday, I know, we will take another journey through mythology, today a sail down the Lethe, no doubt, or perhaps a careful avoidance of the Styx. He will speak of Thanatos and Mors, and will tell me not to be sad, and with his sad smile, I will not be, and though he is…

    Lou Faber

  • ANGRY, BUT ONLY A LITTLE

    You want it spicy, but just so that the tongue remembers it a moment after the mouth has moved on, a lingering sense of having been present. It should be a mantilla, a shawl, not the blanket some claim, gently caressing, lighting up the plate. Its host, freshly from the rollers, was born for this…

    Lou Faber

  • THANKS

    She said I should be thankful that I am not a rice farmer. She said that I should be thankful that I am not over seven feet tall, and not less than four feet eight inches, although she concedes that four feet nine would not be cause for celebration. She says I should be thankful…

    Lou Faber

  • 17/3

    Blue heron takes flight giant wings stir wispy clouds April emerges. December garden faceless Buddha loudly laughs wriggling toes in snow. Bang the drum loudly kasha awaits the silence a winter tempest

    Lou Faber

  • NOM

    He is fond of the name Alejandro Carlos Ernesto Rodrigo Guttierez. The fact is he loves the name. He knows it has a certain nobility to it. It embodies and conveys strength and character. It is a source of pride and great satisfaction. The name makes him taller, bolder. There is so much in a…

    Lou Faber

  • THE LAST TIME

    The last time we spoke you asked me when the end was coming. I didn’t have a good answer for you, wasn’t even quite sure what you meant by the question, the end of what? Of time, of your life or mine, or merely the end of a conversation we had been carrying on for…

    Lou Faber

  • WAITING FOR

    It was lying there, on the ground, waiting to be noticed, unsure of why everyone walked by, some glancing, most lost in thought. It hadn’t been there long, but certainly long enough to be seen, of that it was certain, yet there it lay staring crimson at the sun overhead, and even the one passing…

    Lou Faber

  • UNCOUPLED

    Hope lies, she says, somewhere between anticipation and boredom, and in the daily muck and mire so few want to look closely enough to discover its presence, though it promises deeply desired rewards. He says he prefers faith, for it requires less work, just state the desired outcome and believe, as deeply as you can,…

    Lou Faber